Filbi: I am not a fan of D&D 2024 changing "race" to "species", doing away with racial ability score modifiers, and removing the half-elf and half-orc from the Player's Handbook. I am extremely wary of applying real-world social justice principles to fictional creatures that don't actually exist.

I am not a fan of D&D 2024 changing "race" to "species", doing away with racial ability score modifiers, and removing the half-elf and half-orc from the Player's Handbook. I am extremely wary of applying real-world social justice principles to fictional creatures that don't actually exist.

Elves and dwarves are not stand-ins for real human cultures. They are fantasy archetypes. No real person is being harmed by orcs being stronger than gnomes or halflings being more charismatic than dwarves.

It doesn't promote real-world racism. The only people who could take it that way are already racist, and stupid to boot.

I wasn't aware that they'd scrubbed the half-elf and half-orc! That's really dumb, especially if they've reconceived "races" as "species," given that cross-species hybridization occurs all the time in the real world.

Apparently they're including rules on hybrids in general, but again... half-elves and half-orcs are specific archetypes. I don't like this change.

I'm fine with them doing away with "half-elf" and "half-orc", as it has always marginalized what the other half is. Do elves and orcs call them "half-humans"? Call them something entirely new. Or, conversely, they are whatever heritage they identify with. Orcs, elves, or humans.

I respectfully disagree. I don't think you can marginalize their other half when the players are human. You don't need to specify the other half of their heritage because we're viewing them from our own human perspective.

When Tolkien named a character "Elrond Half-Elven" there was no question what the other half was.

And yet most people didn't call him that. He was just "Elrond". Which was more than enough.

I think it works with the way they changed species and background and it focuses more on how you look being flavor and the mechanical benefits being how you're raised/brought up. I kinda like it because I like the idea that Elves and Orcs are not even TRUE versions of that species...

but are some version of human hybrid to various degrees. It fits with Elves especially with the Eladrin

and with Orcs I like the idea form their origin that they have basically a Curse from their God being insane/enranged and the duel paths of overcoming that is intermingling with humans to various degrees to 'dilute' it's effects or trying to sooth/cure the God and the second way is slow going

a suggestion someone had that the Orc curse is that they literally are barred from farming and smithing. Crops wilt under their care and Ore refuses to smelt. This forces them into being raiders, or relying on members of community who are less effected by the curse enough to work

Personally, I've always liked the idea of calling them things like "elfblood human" or "humanblood orc", showing which culture they cleave to while also paying homage to what their other heritage is.

If that is the case, that we are viewing them from a real-world human perspective, then applying real-world human racial concepts is absolutely valid.

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